City-based business professional Rohit Srivastava did not know smart phones, like computers, could be targeted by a virus till his own phone stopped functioning.

The first thing the 26-year-old did after getting his smart phone repaired was install a pre-packaged anti-virus in the phone, a concept he was not aware of so far.  

Worms, trojans, viruses and hackers are not a threat to home PCs or laptops alone. According to survey by Trend Micro, a leading Internet security firm, cyber crooks have started attacking mobile phones.

Sale of smart phones like Blackberry, iPhone, Palm and the emerging android is rising in the country making them a target of cyber crooks out to create mischief.

According to Gartner, a research firm, more than 139 million smart phones were sold worldwide last year, a 13.9 per cent increase from 2007. A year ago, most people used smart phones for voice calls and e-mail but now an increasing number of users are surfing the Internet and paying bills through cell phones, thus matching the activities of a computer.

A recent survey by Trend Micro shows that only 23 per cent of smart phone users have any security software loaded on their phones and 44 per cent think surfing the Internet on the phone is as safe or safer than doing so on a PC.

“Most people are not aware of possible threats to smart phones. A malware can enter a smart phone via SMS and Bluetooth messages and most commonly the Internet. All smart phones should be protected with a firewall to block communications with the back-end site and SMS spam protection, data encryption and URL filtering. It’s necessary to treat a smart phone like a computer,” said Abhinav Karnwal, product marketing manager, Trend Micro.

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